


Protectors

by AgentFrostbite



Series: Strike Team Adventures [5]
Category: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: But that's what happens when you use work to push away emotional trauma, Buzzsaw Has A Heart, Frenzy Has a Heart, Gen, Gotta love the whump, I apparently like hurting my characters, Including Knock Out, Laserbeak Has A Heart, Nikki has great friends, Nikki is totally reckless, Ravage Has A Heart, Rumble Has A Heart, THAT surprises LITERALLY NO-ONE, Team as Family, That doesn't surprise literally anyone, That surprises everyone, This doesn't surprise too many people, This surprises many people, Writing characters watching over characters in the hospital is my JAM, in a bad way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:41:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27822430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentFrostbite/pseuds/AgentFrostbite
Summary: Soundwave's Minicons have never been known as protectors. Then again, they've never had anyone outside of themselves to protect.
Series: Strike Team Adventures [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1332706
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	1. Laserbeak

When Laserbeak accepted Skylar's offer to be her partner, he really hadn't though the whole thing through. For example, he should've researched how recklessly crazy she was in the middle of a fight. She often threw herself straight at her opponents with little to no regard or plan. Most of the time, it worked spectacularly well; no-one expected to see a feral 16 year old throwing ice and fire at them while charging them head-on. It was that element of surprise that kept her from being turned into Swiss cheese, but she always insisted that Laserbeak did at least as much work as the surprise or her inexhaustible store of luck.

"You watch my six," she always said, "which means I don't have to."

As it turned out, she did. Laserbeak wasn't good enough at covering her, and she'd taken a bullet to the chest. Granted, she should've been wearing a bulletproof vest, and the job came with no shortage of chances for something like that to happen, and arguably, one should never stop watching their six, but the fact of the matter remained. She'd trusted him, and he'd let her down.

And now he was hoping that she wasn't about to die, because if she died, he'd be fair game for whatever prosecutor wanted to target him next.

"She gets shot like this once every three or so months," Romanov assured him as they watched the surgery through the window. "SHIELD's got the best medical team on the planet, and they've worked on her before. She'll pull through just fine and be back up in a couple weeks."

Laserbeak had a love-hate relationship with Skylar's increased healing factor. It meant that she was boots-on-the-ground more often than most other agents in her skill level and that she could bounce back from just about everything much quicker. It also meant that she more or less had a license to be reckless with her health. After all, if she could take a bullet to the chest, go through surgery, and be done with the whole thing in three-ish weeks, why bother being careful? It made him worry that she'd go too far one day, throw herself into something she couldn't bounce back from, and then where would she be?

He supposed that was his job, to keep her from doing that. She had a healing factor. He most certainly did not. His right wing still had a silver mark from where she'd welded the extra piece back on after he got it clipped by a spray of bullets last week.

Romanov was right, though. The surgery went flawlessly, she was placed in a medical bed to sleep off the rest of the sedative, and Laserbeak was released to go do whatever – though strictly speaking, no-one required him to be there in the first place. She was his partner, so morals dictated he stay. Now that the last thing she had to do was sleep until she woke up and take it slow for the next three weeks, he could zip off and no-one would raise an eyebrow.

There were other beds in the ward where Skylar was kept. None of them had their partners or team hovering about, but it still felt wrong to leave.

_"You watch my six,"_ her words echoed in his processor, and that meant he had to stay.

The devotion felt uncannily similar to that which he often used with his family. How he'd hover over Soundwave when Soundwave had been hurt after an arena fight or a battlefield. How he'd stand guard over the twins and Ratbat, glaring at anything that wasn't of their family that dared to approach. How he'd sit next to Ravage and Buzzsaw, not hovering but still protecting, because they needed it too. He wondered what they would have to say about his taking this human, this small organic whose bravery was much bigger than her brains, under his wing. He hoped they'd be amused, maybe even proud.

He wished more than anything that he could tell them.

He eventually settled on landing on the head of the bed, sharp talons curled around the white tube of the headboard. He settled in for a long night with no sleep and endless boredom. When Romanov dropped by later, she flicked off the lights, and the room was plunged into darkness, save for two ruby red optics that sharply scanned everything around.

* * *

Either they hit her with a huge dose of sedative – and she did require more than most people, thanks to the workings of some kind of increased metabolism that burned through certain drugs like wildfire through dry brush – or she was just flat out exhausted, but she didn't even stir until the next morning. By that time, Laserbeak had seen thirteen people, chased off four of them, begrudgingly let the doctor and two nurses attend to her, and was very cordial with the rest, who were Avengers coming to deliver well-wishes to their youngest member.

It was 10:20 when she finally woke, and Laserbeak stared down at her when she looked up. To his surprise, she didn't jump at all. She only smiled.

"I sincerely hope you've done something more productive than sitting there watching me sleep," she joked. Maybe a half joke. He couldn't tell.

But he was relieved, so decided to humor her with a smile of his own.

"Nope," he proudly answered. She smiled even broader, as did he.


	2. Ravage

It had happened on his watch. Really, it had happened _because_ of him. Ravage had successfully managed to lie to himself that it was really her fault, that she'd been the one to do the absolutely insane thing to drive one semi-truck into another, cab to cab, to stop HYDRA from getting away with Ravage, who'd been caught and tied up in the trailer. She could just as easily have made an ice dagger and killed the driver at a distance, created a huge ice wall for the would-be kidnapper truck to slam into, even just shot the tires out. But no, she'd decided that an automobile accident was the best way to handle it, and by the time Ravage had recovered from being tipped 180 degrees and got to her, she was out cold, bleeding all over the smashed remnants of her borrowed semi.

Her fault. But if he hadn't gotten caught in the first place, hadn't seen the electronet and froze like a coward, she wouldn't have had to rescue him. So, his fault.

Neither Knock Out nor Laserbeak seemed particularly interested in assigning blame for Nikki's injuries. Of course, there wasn't much room to do anything but try to get her stabilized and stop the bleeding. The crisis had passed, she would live, but she was still paler than snow and it was unnerving to see.

Laserbeak had been fielding agents all day, explaining over and over what'd happened. Ravage didn't expect to see him in the room with Nikki, but as soon as he did, he realized there was nowhere else Laserbeak would be. Laser was her partner. He was in charge of her safety, over anyone else, and it was his responsibility to make sure she didn't do crazy things like slam a semi into another semi. That also meant that it was his job to watch over her until she recovered from the decision. And even more than that, she was his friend. His first friend outside the Decepticons, the first human to look at him and truly believe he was worth more than his Energon-soaked mess of a past, the first person to stand in front of the public and dare them to get to him over her dead body. She inspired a trust and devotion in Laserbeak that Ravage had only seen directed toward his family – Soundwave and the other Minicons – and it shocked him with its depth and occasional ferocity.

Of course Laserbeak was there. There was nowhere else he'd want to be.

Laserbeak perched on the head of the bed, talons wrapping around the cylindrical connector between the two bedposts. He settled in and let his optics flicker to the half-on, half-off state that they were in when he entered what Nikki called 'dozing mode' – a state of neither true recharge nor true alertness. He didn't look at Ravage once during the whole thing, and Ravage couldn't blame him. He hadn't been around the humans answering questions for no more than an hour total, and he was still tired of it several hours later. Laserbeak had only just escaped. Either he hadn't let the incident sink in or he was used to similar ones.

It took several minutes of watching his brother to determine that what Laserbeak had taken up was a sentry position. He was protecting Nikki from anything else that might come after her. Ravage felt…a similar compulsion. Something deeper than he had the words for, that demanded he protect her in the same way.

After another minute of deliberation, he decided that curling up at the foot of the bed was the best place. Nimbly, he hopped up onto it, curling up and lying down in two swift movements so he didn't overthink it. Like Laserbeak, he powered into a state of half-awareness, able to rest but also ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

* * *

The whimpering started sometime after 0130, but he didn't register it – shamefully – until 0143. By that time, the whimpers were much louder.

He started and watched her. Laserbeak was also awake, also watching, but doing nothing. Ravage could sense pricks of panic across their family bond.

**_Aren't you going to do something?_** Ravage asked, looking to his younger brother for cues, because Laserbeak had been with her almost two years longer than Ravage had.

**_It's a MECH nightmare. I can't do anything because she'll freak out if I do,_** Laserbeak replied, the heavy feeling of _guilt_ dripping from his field and through their bond. From how Laserbeak said it, Ravage knew he'd likely tried a couple times.

Well, Ravage hadn't tried, and while he usually learned his lessons from someone else's mistakes, he decided to make one of his own. Shifting slowly, making sure not to startle her into wakefulness, he repositioned himself so that he was lying parallel with her. Slowly, gently, he pressed his nose into her curled up fist. Her fingers spasmed at the contact, and a small cry of pain and panic tore from her, but he didn't let up. He simply pressed his nose into her now-open palm, knowing that _that_ contact would be different enough from what she was experiencing that it wouldn't trigger her further.

He was rather surprised when she began to calm. Her cries turned back into whimpers, then into heavy breaths, and finally, her eyes opened. She blinked blearily at him, gathering her bearings, identifying her surroundings, eventually resting on him again.

He knew the pain in her eyes. He had MECH nightmares, too. And always, she sat with him through them, even when he lashed out.

That was where Laserbeak got the devotion from. It was where Ravage got it from, too.

"Good boy," she rasped in a whisper, and he closed his optics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, y'all! Frostbite here with a quick note. I volunteer at an organization in Middle Tennessee called Saddle Up! It's a therapeutic riding program that serves kids who have both physical and mental disabilities. It is the only organization of its kind in the whole of Middle Tennessee, and it changes lives every day. We're on our last week of our Pony Up! peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. Because of COVID, our normal fundraising campaigns were canceled, since it's hard to host a charity polo match or jumping show without guests.
> 
> My sister and I have been volunteering at Saddle Up! for five years now, and it's changed my life by giving me a purpose. Because of the amazing kids and volunteers at Saddle Up!, I decided to make horses my full time career and am in college now working toward a Horse Science degree. When we heard about the opportunity to give back to the place that has given so much to us, we were really excited to help, and we started our own fundraising team named "I Love Lucy!", in honor of my sister's favorite horse, with the goal of raising $250 in just four weeks.
> 
> I know money is probably tight for a lot of y'all, but anything you can spare helps, even just a dollar! AO3 is a community filled with wonderful, generous people; I've seen them exceed the AO3 donation goal time after time. 100% of the money you donate will go straight to Saddle Up!'s horses for their feeding and care, to the facility for upkeep, and most importantly, to the kids by helping Saddle Up! continue to be able to tell the parents of our riders that they can "Pay what they can afford" to keep their kids enrolled in their therapy. Thank you so, so much for your time and patience reading this note and have a great week!  
> https://www.ponyupnashville.org/support/#ReitFam


	3. Frenzy & Rumble

She was perfectly still. It was so strange to see, from the human who was always moving and shifting and speaking, but there it was. Nikki Skylar was perfectly still on the hospital bed, and neither Frenzy nor Rumble could look at her for very long.

Their most recent tangle with a Decepticon – a strange occurrence that happened so infrequently that they had no semblance of a plan other than "Take them down fast" – had left Nikki in a coma after she'd been thrown into a building hard enough to leave a small crack in her skull. To keep her still until she could heal a bit more, the doctors, with Knock Out's permission, elected to keep her under using an experimental new type of sedative that her metabolism couldn't burn through as fast.

The side effect was that she didn't even twitch. She laid there, unresponsive, the steady beeping of the monitors and the slow motion of her chest the only indicators that she wasn't dead where she lay.

It was terrible. It was just awful. They both hated it so much, and they didn't have the words to describe just how much they hated it. It was only a visceral feeling, like how they felt when one of their family was down, and it rendered them basically mute. They communicated only through glances, their strange twin telepathy, and were so grateful that they were lowest on the list of people to report to concerning official matters.

They didn't want to leave the room, and that was perhaps the strangest thing about it. They couldn't leave, because it felt too much like abandoning her, but they couldn't look at her or discuss her at all. The rest of the team was running about, mopping up the mess the attacking Decepticon had left, both with physical damage and the cracks to the government's tenuous trust of the team. Frenzy and Rumble hadn't seen Laserbeak since they wheeled Nikki into the room she currently rested in. They both felt guilty for feeling relieved that they didn't have to deal with whatever he was dealing with. They were, after all, on guard duty. Someone had to watch her to make sure no-one came in to take her out while she was down.

Several Avengers came and left over the course of the day. All of them seemed to know, somehow, that the twins weren't up for talking. Wanda read to Nikki – though Rumble got the feeling she was reading to them as well. Hank came in and silently worked on…something on his laptop. Clint came in and chatted about his day and how it had gone – and Frenzy felt relieved and guilty in equal parts for the distraction, falling into the archer's tales with such ease. Bruce came in, announced that this was "the only quiet place in New York right now," and fell asleep for a couple hours. It was nice to have two people sleeping, because the twins could pretend that Nikki was fine for a little.

But the Avengers came, and eventually they had to leave, and the Minicons were left alone with the quiet hiss of machinery and beeping of monitors.

Ravage stumbled in sometime after 8 PM and looked over at them. They blinked at him, he blinked at them, and without another word, he hopped up onto the hospital bed. Frenzy moved a step toward the cybercat. Rumble opened his mouth to ask what he was doing. Neither intent was completed. Ravage was left to curl up next to Nikki in peace. He situated himself, tucked up against her side, and though she was asleep, her hand moved to rest on his paw.

The twins looked at each other and slowly sat back down.

Not long after, Laserbeak appeared, wobbling slightly as he flew, landing on the head of Nikki's bed. Perched over her, he went to half-power, dozing but not fully asleep. It took the twins a moment to realize what was happening.

They were guarding her, too. Laserbeak, they kind of expected to do something like that, but Ravage was the shocker. As they thought about it more, they decided that if Ravage and Laserbeak could stand guard so close, they should, too.

But where to pick?

"We could sit at the foot of the bed," Frenzy murmured. It was the first time either had heard the other's voice in actual hours, and it startled them both.

Rumble looked at it. "We'd have to move Ravage," he pointed out.

A ghost of his usual smile crossed Frenzy's faceplates. "Ah, I'm sure he won't mind."

So Rumble followed his twin's lead and climbed up onto the bed Both Laserbeak and Ravage woke at the movement, and the latter put up token protests as the twins took over some of his spot, but they settled in shortly afterward, all curled up in a pile that stretched from one end of the bed to the other.

"Hey, you don't think this thing's gonna give out on us, do ya?" Rumble asked.

"I will warn you exactly once: mute it," Ravage growled, shifting so he was more comfortable.

The faint impression of a smile crossed Nikki's face, but no-one was looking at her when it did, so no-one saw.


	4. Buzzsaw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! I hope y'all had a good Christmas!  
> I'm sorry I didn't post anything seasonally related this December. I tried to write something, but I had no decent ideas, and I didn't think it'd be fair to y'all to chuck out some half-baked, barely finished story just to say I posted something. Maybe I'll get something good for New Year's, assuming the gremlin that is my muse decides to be nice to me and chuck me an idea.  
> Happy holidays and happy writing!

By the time Buzzsaw arrived, it was practically a rule that when Skylar was in the hospital, the Minicons would take over her bed, half guarding and half comforting. Then again, by the time Buzzsaw arrived, the team already had many rules and dynamics that she knew nothing about, and most of them, she wanted no part in. She was there because that was where her family was, and she was on the team because she'd worked with her family since her activation. She knew nothing else. So no, she didn't need the buddy-buddy attitude or the team bonding, and she definitely didn't need to take part in the rituals that the others did.

She didn't knock on wood when remarking about how the mission would go because she had probabilities to back her up. She didn't join the group sing-alongs because she didn't sing and she didn't care if everyone else did. And she didn't sit on Skylar's hospital bed because it wasn't her place.

The rest of the team was out, though. The mess that had left an unconscious Skylar in its wake still needed cleaning up, and while Buzzsaw did feel remorse for leaving her father and brothers to the dirty task of cleaning up their latest MECH encounter, she'd been asked to remain with Skylar. Not ordered, since that apparently wasn't how things went here most of the time, but asked, gently. She couldn't refuse Soundwave on anything, and she didn't want to work around the twins' somber mood, so she'd agreed. Hence, why she was in the room, perched on the windowsill.

The sun shone through the clouds in weak spurts, enough to brighten the world outside for a few minutes, but not enough to warm her like she'd been hoping. Interestingly enough, she seemed to have picked up on Ravage's basking habit, something that Laserbeak teased her endlessly for. The precise angle of the sun had, for the last hour, cast Buzzsaw's shadow on Skylar's bed. It was an…interesting shadow. A bit sinister, if she had to be completely honest. But on the other hand, it warded people away most of the time.

Barton apparently forgot what her shadow looked like, and upon seeing it as he was casually passing the room, he'd switched directions, burst in ready to fight, and had been met with an unenthused Buzzsaw. He'd then proceeded to bug her by chattering at her and Skylar for a good half hour before his wife called him and reminded him that he was supposed to be home fifteen minutes ago. He'd left them after that, but he'd…looked at Skylar. Like he pitied her. Or maybe like he knew what was coming.

Laserbeak had warned her. Buzzsaw had seen it with Ravage. MECH was an evil, vile group that Unicron would've been happy to recruit for his case, were he still around, and Buzzsaw wished a slow and painful death on each and every person who worked for them for what they did to her brother.

Skylar's face twitched, maybe in distress, and Buzzsaw watched her closely. Slowly, Skylar came out of it, but she wasn't peaceful. Her heart rate shot up, her fingers twitched, and she began to tremble from head to toe. This was a MECH nightmare, a waking in confusion and fear, and Buzzsaw didn't know what to do about it.

Everyone else on the team had their own way to deal with Skylar's trauma. It mostly involved reminding her where she was, assuring her that MECH couldn't get to her, and keeping her in the present moment. Buzzsaw had never stuck around for those times, feeling that she wasn't supposed to see such intimacy. She wished she'd been a little less courteous then, because she had no clue how to handle it now. She did know that she needed to get it under control before the doctors came in, though. If Skylar saw a doctor in her panicked state, it was all over.

With no other ideas, and needing to get a better handle on the situation, Buzzsaw flew from her windowsill perch to the head of Skylar's bed, wrapping her talons around the white pipe that counted as the backboard of the bed. She watched, optics flicking back and forth, as she desperately attempted to come up with a solution that wouldn't freak the woman out any more than she already was.

Skylar's eyes flew open, wide and dazed, and Buzzsaw stared right back at her. "Good morning, Nikki," she greeted quietly.

Skylar blinked, swallowed, and replied, "You got my six?"

Buzzsaw frowned as she contemplated the meaning of the term. It took her a moment to find it, and when she did, it was in conjunction with a memory of Laserbeak.

_"Nikki and I, we're partners. It's my job to have her six. That means watch her back. Make sure no-one shoots it or runs her over or whatever else they try to do to her."_

So Nikki looked at Buzzsaw, in her dazed and drug-filled state, and believed that she was Laserbeak. And Buzzsaw didn't have the spark to correct her.

"I've got your six," she answered, pitching her vocalizer to imitate her brother's.

Nikki nodded, blinked blearily a couple times, and went back to sleep. Her heartrate and the rest of her vitals returned to normal levels, and Buzzsaw found herself trapped there. She couldn't up and leave to return to her perch on the windowsill; she'd just promised to watch Nikki's back. She would have to wait until Laserbeak arrived to relieve her, but that could be hours. She'd have to stay in this guard position for _hours_ , and that basically meant that she was doing what the other Minicons did when Nikki was injured, but…

Was that so bad?

Surely, she'd earned her place on the team by now, and she supposed that if she had to participate in any Strike Team tradition, this wasn't the worst she could pick from. What was the big difference between the windowsill and the head of the bed anyway? She certainly wasn't getting any sun over there, and arguably this perch was more comfortable. She had a better vantage point on anyone or anything approaching, and she was right there if she needed to step in to help Nikki for any reason.

She stopped herself, let her processor quiet, and lamented – momentarily – over the fact that she'd well and truly gone native.

Then she slipped into half-power mode, remaining somewhat aware of her surroundings while getting some rest. It wasn't too long after then that the rest of the Minicons streamed in. She woke fully, ready to move, but Laserbeak only landed beside her.

"Scooch a bit," he said, almost slurring the words from not opening his beak enough.

Suspicious, Buzzsaw did as ordered, glancing between him and the others. She knew their positions well by this point, and watched them as they settled in. When no-one spoke to her for a while, she shifted a bit and remained awake for a little while longer.

**_Go to sleep, Buzz,_** Laserbeak suddenly spoke over their bond. **_I can hear you thinking and it's keeping me awake._**

**_Being awake is kind of essential for guard duty,_** she sniped back.

**_Mute. It,_** Ravage growled.

A bit more at ease, and now certain she wasn't going to be kicked out, Buzzsaw settled back into half-power mode, in sentry position with the rest of her family. Before she did, though, she took one last look down at Nikki – now smiling – and begrudgingly admitted that she wasn't immune to whatever it was that Nikki did to inspire such devotion from the rest of Buzzsaw's brothers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the question is, _did_ Nikki think she was Laserbeak?


	5. Guardians

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit short, but here it is! I hope y'all enjoyed this story, and HEY GUESS WHAT?? WE SURVIVED 2020!

Knock Out was very used to the Minicons' normal routine. He'd had no choice but to get used to it, mostly because Laserbeak could pull rank on him and Ravage terrified him. Still did, if he was being honest. But it was well established, at this point, how they all arranged themselves around Nikki. Essentially, Knock Out worked against the clock to get in and do whatever major work he needed to do, before they all tucked in for the night.

He did come by periodically to check on Nikki, as any good doctor would. Most of the time, they were all asleep. Buzzsaw still seemed to track his movements, though, which creeped him out. He _knew_ she was asleep, he ran scans to confirm it, but her dimmed optics still followed him form the time he came in until the time he left. He couldn't decide if that or the fact that she really _cared_ was weirder.

Sometimes Laserbeak was awake. He was rarely perfectly lucid, and he almost always asked at least one off-his-rocker question, but he always smiled at the scene that gathered around and below him, and he always extended a courteous, friendly nod to Knock Out. Knock Out always returned it. They'd certainly come a long way from the bickering pair that Nikki had to keep separated with a yardstick.

Ravage never woke up, unless Nikki was having a nightmare, and Knock Out had long since learned to steer clear of the cybercat. Ravage could keep his quiet vigil and Knock Out could check all the readouts to ensure Nikki's accelerated healing was doing its thing, and as long as neither ever bothered the other, both were okay with the arrangement.

Frenzy and Rumble slept like rocks. Knock Out could drive a car through the side of the room and they'd snore straight through it, with was annoying, but at least he didn't have to deal with their insanity. He wasn't sure he could handle them on top of not disturbing Ravage, having Laserbeak ask him insane things, and Buzzsaw sleep-stalking him.

But the best times – and he would stick to his guns on this – the best times were when everyone but Nikki was asleep. Because when Nikki was awake, she'd look at them all with the most heartbreakingly grateful expression. It was like she simply couldn't believe she'd been lucky enough to have them all with her, like it was unfathomable that they chose to stay overnight with her, like it was a lovely dream that might slip from her grasp if she so much as blinked.

She always blinked, and they were always there when she opened her eyes again. She'd look at Knock Out and smile, she'd mouth a 'thank you' – for what, he could never say; there were so many things she could be thanking him for, and not all of them were things she needed to – and she'd settle in and fall back asleep. She looked so peaceful when she slept after waking up. It always warmed Knock Out's spark to see that particular soft smile, and each and every time, he was grateful for her little army of protectors for putting it there.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all! Frostbite here with a quick note. I volunteer at an organization in Middle Tennessee called Saddle Up! It's a therapeutic riding program that serves kids who have both physical and mental disabilities. It is the only organization of its kind in the whole of Middle Tennessee, and it changes lives every day. Thanks to the support of so many amazing people, we were able to surpass our fundraising goal! Thank you to all of you who took the time to read these notes, even if you didn't donate. Your support is so appreciated! Happy writing and Merry Christmas!


End file.
